Armagh Club football & hurling

[goh4205]

surely McDonald wouldn't allow that" oh sorry, sure he doesn't pick the team AOR does", as he would most defiantly be exposed.  I think there should be a complete clean out, and this would include Francie, AOR, MOR, Enda. 

Not the first time i've heard cross lads making outrageous claims against McDonnell. co board picks the team, players pick the team, sponsor picks the team, hates cross players, etc.

would there be any annoyance round yourclub simply because you guys have no longer carte blanche over the county team any more?

I'm not from Cross GAA and it wouldn't matter if i was, the comments i made were first hand information from players on the panel, and yes before you ask some were from Cross and other were from other clubs, do you want me to name them all.
This is what the players were saying, so there not outrageous claims, sure if you know anything or mix in GAA circles you bound to have heard this. all be it there's abit added to storeies everytime its told, but this was what was happening this season.

I think McDonald is a good enough manager, but if he allows players to control the dressing room, then his cred is finished and he managerial career as well.

[pintsofguinness]

The GAA - did you previously post on this board under a different name?

[AFS]

Very disappointing result there from Cullyhanna, didn't see the match so I can't criticise I suppose.

Though the one thing that does strike me is the fact that the team that finished 20th in the Derry league ladder is better than the team that finished 3rd in our own league. This is a pretty poor indictment of the standard of club football in the county.

[TacadoirArdMhacha]

Very disappointing result there from Cullyhanna, didn't see the match so I can't criticise I suppose.

Though the one thing that does strike me is the fact that the team that finished 20th in the Derry league ladder is better than the team that finished 3rd in our own league. This is a pretty poor indictment of the standard of club football in the county.

Its a fair point AFS but the one thing I would say is that if we'd have produced the football that got us to 3rd in the league this year, we'd probably have won. But we didn't and Greenlough deservedly beat us.

Ironically the only close game we had in Armagh was against a side that will playing division 4 football next year. We got away with a complacent performance that day, we weren't so lucky today.

[back off the net]

cullyhanna were beat by 2 points today in a game they could have taken if the right pass had to being played to  many poor decisions made in front off goal.shane lennon pulling up in the 2nd half was a big lost as he was marking there play maker st pats mid field did not get going ciaran mc keever was still very tired looking from austraila and mal mackin worked hard but nothing fell his way.dont think greenlough will win it if cullyhanna had to have turned up they would have taken it handy.
                                        trillick to win it another one for tyrone

[The GAA]

The GAA - did you previously post on this board under a different name?

Yeah, years ago pints. doubt anyone here would remember.

that sounds like pub talk goh and i've never heard it anywhere. only complaint i've heard about him and the players is that he's very distant and doesn't communicate that well at all.

if you're not from cross goh, why is every post in your posting history either about cross players or criticising armagh's management?

[goh4205]

The GAA - did you previously post on this board under a different name?

Yeah, years ago pints. doubt anyone here would remember.

that sounds like pub talk goh and i've never heard it anywhere. only complaint i've heard about him and the players is that he's very distant and doesn't communicate that well at all.

if you're not from cross goh, why is every post in your posting history either about cross players or criticising armagh's management?

what i post on/about, is my business & if you can find another post of mine criticizing Armagh then let me see it, I just stated which is pretty much common knowledge really. regarding the pub talk jibe, I don't do it, but clearly you do, with your anti Cross views. So what club are you from just to clear the air

[pintsofguinness]

Yeah, years ago pints. doubt anyone here would remember.

I was actually thinking of someone more recent. 

[Armagh Exile]

Lots of complaints from Students who had to pay £12 entrance fee to Crossmaglen for the Ulster Club games.
This is most unfair as there was concessions for OAP's and quite rightly but no for Students.
Surely the GAA should be encouraging these young people to come to our games instead of driving them away by charging them £12.
Who sets these fees and can our county representatives at Ulster Council not get this changed?

[AFS]

Lots of complaints from Students who had to pay £12 entrance fee to Crossmaglen for the Ulster Club games.
This is most unfair as there was concessions for OAP's and quite rightly but no for Students.
Surely the GAA should be encouraging these young people to come to our games instead of driving them away by charging them £12.
Who sets these fees and can our county representatives at Ulster Council not get this changed?

See the thread on the main GAA section. The prices in general, but particularly for students, are ridiculous, but I'd have no sympathy with people complaining at today's game. They should have been well aware of what they were expected to pay considering the amount of publicity surrounding this subject in the last week.

[KIDDO 4]

Hand the gateman 10.00 sterling , often they will not refuse .

[The GAA]

The GAA - did you previously post on this board under a different name?

Yeah, years ago pints. doubt anyone here would remember.

that sounds like pub talk goh and i've never heard it anywhere. only complaint i've heard about him and the players is that he's very distant and doesn't communicate that well at all.

if you're not from cross goh, why is every post in your posting history either about cross players or criticising armagh's management?

what i post on/about, is my business & if you can find another post of mine criticizing Armagh then let me see it, I just stated which is pretty much common knowledge really. regarding the pub talk jibe, I don't do it, but clearly you do, with your anti Cross views. So what club are you from just to clear the air

I'm from keady.

post up my "anti cross views" there like a good man...

i don't know how any of your nonsense can be common knowledge when there's only you knows it!

It is pretty easy to look good when you have no to mark as said previous.  McGrane was on his own & I don't think he should retire, he has another left in him i think.  Regarding McConville I think the Armagh supporters don't realise it, but it will be a very long time before they have his likes again.  They only come round in a life time and for the management to treat him like they have this year was a disgrace.  If they didn't want him, why didn't they tell him at the start of the year, if one was cynical you would think they did this to embarrass or humiliate the guy.  real shame to see this guy go in the manner he has.

Wexford are a very average team, but clear to good for this Armagh team that had no direction or idea what to do on a pitch which has massive space to avail off.

tommy andy mallon is a fine player would get on any team, but would the rest? mckeever isn't great when he's on pace and i thought banville gave him the run around today.kernan is great going forward but as seen against vincents earlier in the year ,isn;t a great defender and his tackling technique isn;t good and because of it he gives away frees. He's a talior made half forward who is accurate and why armagh don't play him there is beyond me. Bellew did well until the end in fairness but dropping back your half forward line is a futile exercise unless they have the gas to get upand support the front two and armagh paid for that today.

Couldn't agree more Indiana, very true post, so what does that tell you about the management that Armagh have.

Very surprised at that result, the quality of Ulster football this Championship season has been abysmal.  Armagh's midfield disappeared when it counted, their half-forward line was shite and Bellew surely should have been switched off Forde before the end although he did well in the first half.  Would expect a few off their elder statesmen to retire now although they should do all they can to persuade Aidan O'Rourke to stay, he had a very good game today I thought.

it's pretty easy to look good when you have no one to mark. the reason Armagh had no half forward line was they were back covering for Aidan & this has been the system of play all season.  It was always going to work on wet mucky & small pitches, but on bigger parks it told the story today.  There is no doubting his pacing ability, but he has no pace, never had, and I think he should think carefully about returning next year. All said, what has McDonnell brought to this Armagh Camp, NOTHING in my opinion, he is stuck in the same old system that Kernan & Grimley developed when no one else understood it & he was expecting older lads to play the same system of play when they hadend the fitness or the legs for it. Maybe Armagh should have gone with Grimley & McGeeney at least the players would have their heart in it, as it clear didn't look that way today.
That said Wexford had their homework done & deserved their win, Armagh will be back, they have the strength coming through, more so than any of the other Ulster teams that have showed up this year.

[umgolaarmagh]

Was not at any of the games today but the third most consistent SENIOR team in armagh this year (Cullyhanna) is beat by an intermediate second division football team from Derry

Any body any opinions on this?

[TacadoirArdMhacha]

Was not at any of the games today but the third most consistent SENIOR team in armagh this year (Cullyhanna) is beat by an intermediate second division football team from Derry

Any body any opinions on this?

Yes. Go back one page.

[The GAA]

Just to put this nonsense from goh to bed that he's not a cross man....

i thought you boys were all proud of your roots?

Pints  you can make whatever assumption you like, I am only saying what I saw and what I was told. to say that intent is striking is false and push could be interpreted as a strike, but is it.
The person who told me about this is an x Harps player and someone with a very honest view, this was also his view on what I said about Kelly been a yap and was always lying down.  So if thats his opinion as a Harps man, then what do most Cross & neutrals think.

I was at the game, but i was to far away from the incident to see properly.  but what in will say is the Harps peno what charing offence & the goal they got was clearly a push in the back by the no.15. adding to that John McEntee was clearly pushed out over the line which lead to the goal & Tony McEntee has a nice shiner for his troubles after been hit off the ball. Also when did it become legal to allow a 4 man tackle?  I lost count the amount of times Harps were allowed to get away with this.  As for the Francie incident I was talking to a mate who was right behind the goals and seem what happened, the No.13 had been goading Francie for most of the 2nd half and he locked arms with Francie trying to get him to pull him down to get him booked & Francie just pushed him away & he fell.  So the point is cross don't get it all there own way when it comes to refs. regarding a re-fixture if i were Harps I keep wondering of the what if, because if there was to be a reply they would get shown up bigtime as has happened in replays before.

I've heard this alot over the years and if anyone is to blame for that incident it is Benny.  I was at that game and the ball he gave him had several blue lights on it. The ball was there to challenge for and Francie been Francie he went for the ball.  If you even go back to the Down game this year in clones when Danny Hughes & him clashed going for the ball, I was sitting right infront of this and at no time did Bellew take his eyes of the ball which meant if the man was in the way, well tough shit.

Your views are probably what alot of others are thinking, however they do have a few decent lads on their.  a good friend of mine asked a tryone panelists what sort of a clown that Ricey was & his reply was "every county has one"  meaning he's a complete w**ker on and off the pitch.  As for Gormley I think he is a brilliant player that doesn't need to do the things he does.  He should have walked against Mayo for persistant fouling & then belting Mortimer in the back of the net.  Cowardly way to do it, but thats just the it is.
I was at the Dromore/Crossmaglen match last year in the Ulster club match and Ricey was giving McConville shit, I guess about the book, and when John McEntee got his chance he gave him a belt and he never opened his mouth the rest of the game.  So point been they will bully you if they think they'll get away with it. 

God I really wanna stop talking about this but basically you know yourself and its clear to everyone else that when you asked "why did your number 14 kick the ball into the net 3-4 times after scoring" you didn't raise it as a valid question, which was proven by the fact that you answered your own question. It was a childish attempt to take the piss, and hardly an issue thats worth being raised on a discussion board.

Doctor who? Is this really the height of your humour? The craic must be ninety in your house of a saturday night. BC1 are you not ashamed to be posting alongside such an idiot?

The fact that you have to insult me totally explains my point, I guess if someone from my club acted like that tool did then I'd be out fighting to defend him, then again i wouldn't.   BC1 is well able to speak for himself and doesn't need any jibes from you with the attempt to drag him into it, you Dromintee boys should know all about fighting among yourself.

before you imply about me been from Cross, can i inform you I'm not. I was there seeing the great new hope we have from Dromintee among our ranks & to be frank I wasn't impressed.  He was shit scared of an former county lion whom he didn't dare challenge not even once, which says a lot for our selection policy.  We have loads of fringe players like him already who are nothing more than average club players.

I thought that hanratty lad had super game from what i seen, he's a strong lad who could put it up to most midfielders in the county. infact the above mentioned who played yesterday were pretty quite it was the younger crop who made all the play, but it is probably insurance for the younger crop of players knowing that they have the lads above to fall back on.

That must have been what it was BC1, funny cross scored 2 goals and non of the 2 lads who scored acted like that, but as you say since they don't often score points against cross, apart from the occassion you mention never mind goals he probably thought he was doctor who

I went to this game thinking it could through up a fairly interesting challenge considering both teams were very under strength, but truthfully the class really showed in the first 5mins.  When you consider cross have 8 first team players away with Armagh the way they took off from the start it was like a whirl wind and Dromintee didn't know were to turn.  The score line could have been more if not for a brilliant save by the Dromintee keeper in both half's.  Cross looked extremely sharp or maybe the Dromintee lads just were very unfit.
Even with the Armagh connection, Dromintee face a mountain come championship time considering what cross have to come back in also.

Health and safety reasons were stated by goh and others for the final being in cross. Why then, could somebody tell me were these so important rules allowed to slide for semi finals?

It's all to do with the expected crowd attending..  I know someone who knows the health & safety office who inspected the ground for the 2006 final when Dromintee kicked had reservations about home advantage and quite simply they were told that there was no other pitch in Armagh that could facilitate the expected crowd.  The options were Newry or Clones, which the county board wouldn't allow as it would have been seen as an embarrassment upon the county..

I was at the 7's on Saturday and seen every game, apart from the Mullaghbawn/Ballymacnab game. I was right beside the Murtagh incident and to be fair he slammed the ball home from close range which the Clans keeper tried to dive at his feet, now weather Murtagh's boot caught him by accident or not I'm not sure, but there didn't seem to be any deliberate intention on Murtagh's behalf, there was a few words of verbal & the Clans keeper downed him. 

This all started in the first game when a clans player for no reason that i could see busted Tony Kernan of the ball, so I guess it was simmering from then.
The Ref was poor I have to admit, but he could have so easily sent off a few more, notably Marsden he was slapping McKeown anytime he got a chance & to be fair to McKeown he held his head & got on with it.  One thing I did notice though was that Marsden didn't happen to come back after Donal Murtagh had a go at him at a sideline ball & another when Donaldson clearly caught him with an upper cut, but I guess if it would have been anyone else he would having been looking to box, but for some reason he seemed to accept it from the 2 mentioned above (Perhaps he'd have been bitting off more than he could chew with any of these 2).

Barry O'Hagan is still a class player and should still be playing with Armagh.

Firstly congratulation to Cross on a stunning performance on Sunday, from about 10 mins into the game they never looked like losing. As Milltown said they were the better team on the day in everyway, skill, determination & fitness.  I happened to be in Newry so I made my way to the ground pretty early and seen them come out for their warm up onto the back pitch and they were so precise even in that.   In all the drills they did during their warm up I counted only one ball drop. Beside me was a well known ex-Down county manager who commented that are as well drilled as any county team.  How do they get this continual focus  instilled into these lads when you consider that the age gaps between some of the players is quite a lot, is it the fact that the younger guys have so much respect for the likes of Oisin & the McEntees that they just do what is required or as they told.   BC maybe you could answer this.

Lads,

you's can talk around the issue all day, but Winsamsoon is right, jealously is the only issue here. He's also right about the clans, they are the next most successful club in Armagh history, thats fact.

So for talk sake pints the bridge starting winning everything before them and the had a structure were they had 4/5 players coming through every year from minor etc.  after 4/5 years everybody would start hacking the shite out of you's and i bet you would like it.

Success breads contempt from other clubs, but you can't faulty cross for that

I go to alot of armagh football, cause the louth football is shite basically.  Been to a few bridge games, but non of late, i must take one in soon so i can have a right pop at you then.
I would agree with you on your last post, but the difference most of the Dromintee boys didn't wanna know when it hotted up. I know the bridge & cross one's don't get on & maybe there is reasons for that which i don't know, but i find it staggering that so many negitives are posted about Cross when they are the most successful team ever in Armagh & probably Ireland and almost all of them posts are from within Armagh.  I think any county would be proud to have a club team as good as them.

I was on the oppisite side to the stand and some of the verbals coming from the Dromintee supporters was just as bad.  The kernans for some reason seemed to come in for the most.

I thought the ref had a good game yesterday, he made his intentions clear fom the start that he wasn't gonna take any shit from anybody.  In saying that he did miss a few things,  the strike on Oisin in the first half, the strike on AK right in front of the lines man. The challenge from behind on SK which lead to him going off,  and the elbow on the cross no. 7 by AOR right at the end.  There was also a few rash challenge's by a few cross lads as well, which warrent a mention.
There was no way that Dromintee were able to live with the intensiity that Cross set, they seemed to keep pushing and moving at 100mph throughout the game.
Any body seem what happened in the first half when COR got his marching orders!

Your a champ uladh, you probably never kicked a ball in your life, well at a competitive level anyway.  I would feel abit left out, but I'm not the only poster to notice wee jimmy's faults (which were plenty). if I was from cross I'd say it & be proud of it.

As for corn02 i wouldn't expect anything else from you, since your from Dromintee, but can you confirm that AOR told wee  jimmy to go f**k himself during the match, and when he called him back he said it again & followed it with (Don't annoy my f**k'in head) if that would have been anybody else from any other team it would have been a straight red, but it proves my point from an earlier post that wee Jimmy did have another motive, and was clear for all to see.

Was at the Cross - Dromintee game and as a neutral I thought Jimmy McKee was a disgrace.  Marty O'Rourke should have got a straight red for his strike on the young corner back in the first half, but instead he give's marty's marker a yellow.

He also blew a cross half forward up i think for catching a clean kickout and then at the end he gives a fifty which never was & to top that of he  give Marty O'Rourke a free, when he should have blown for over carrying.

I hate picking out individuals, but Marty O'Rourke must be the biggest mouth in the country.  He was constinently at his marker trying to get him sent off and the dives he was getting away with was a joke.
If this is the best Ref in Armagh, he needs to look at himself in the mirror , it looked very clear to me that he was doing everything for Dromintee to snatch it.
If teams need the ref as well to beat cross then the standard outside cross must be pretty poor to say the least.

The most obvious quote to use is this one, when you lost the rag and admitted you were from cross...

A bit like the "Drive it home to them" that was liberally shouted when you beat us by 17 points that day a few years back.  You are right in one thing, it means fcuk all squared come championship, and I think Cross will know that better than most and not let a big win go to their heads.  I would reckon that only 3-4 of the Cross team from Sunday will pay championship against you anyway. 

As for the lad kicking it into the net after scoring the goal, jaysus give the lad a break, it's not everyday you score a goal against Cross, he must have been fierce proud of himself and overcome with emotion 

That must have been what it was BC1, funny cross scored 2 goals and non of the 2 lads who scored acted like that, but as you say since they don't often score points against cross, apart from the occassion you mention never mind goals he probably thought he was doctor who   

At this early stage in the season, how are things shaping out?  Does anyone look like making a serious concerted effort to break the Cross dominance?